Facebook Using Machine Learning to Analyze Emotions

With the extreme size of Facebook’s data set, it is natural for the company to turn to machine learning technology to better understand the intent and emotion behind the posts, presumably for highly targeted ads and maybe more filtered newsfeeds. On the positive side, the algorithm could pick up on a note of sarcasm, such as “yes, all I need today is another fun piece of news about an impending birth/engagement/wedding” and thus put an end to the constant stream of age-related ads for baby clothes, wedding bands and the like. In the article below, the company’s chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer explains how they’re using neural networks for gaining a new level of insight into their user’s minds.